James Joseph Sylvester : Jewish mathematician in a Victorian world

This text offers a biography of James Joseph Sylvester & his work. A Cambridge student at first denied a degree because of his faith, Sylvester came to America to teach mathematics, becoming Daniel Coit Gilman's faculty recruit at Johns Hopkins in 1876 & winning the coveted Savilian Professorship of Geometry at Oxford in 1883.

Acknowledgments --
Introduction : James Joseph Sylvester : the myth, the mathematician, the man --
ch. 1. Born to "the faith in which the founder of Christianity was educated" --
The Josephs of Liverpool --
The Abraham Joseph family of London --
The Royal Institution School, Liverpool --
ch. 2. A price of dissent --
Cambridge debates dissent --
Within the walls of St. John's --
A two-year hiatus --
Back at St. Jon's --
The 1837 tripos --
ch. 3. The hollow walls of academe --
An unexpected opportunity --
Professor of natural philosophy at University College London --
Looking beyond England --
Professor of mathematics at the University of Virginia --
Struggling against an "Adverse tide of affairs" --
ch. 4. Actuary by day ... mathematician by night --
The actuary : an emergent "Professional man" --
J.J. Sylvester, Esq., M.A., F.R.S., Actuary and secretary --
The Institute of Actuaries --
Divided loyalties : mathematician or actuary? --
Establishing a mathematical routine. ch. 5. Into the invariant-theoretic unknown --
The emergence of a theory of invariants --
Crafting the "new algebra" --
The problem of Syzygies --
From actuary to academic? --
ch. 6. A new beginning --
Changing responsibilities --
The Royal Military Academy, Woolwich --
Professor of mathematics once more --
A roving mathematical eye --
ch. 7. At war with the military --
First battle --
Temporary truce --
Second battle --
Hard-won victories --
ch. 8. The uneasy years --
Victorian England and educational reform --
Reform and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich --
Mathematics misrepresented and misunderstood : taking on Huxley --
The BAAS and science education --
Poetry soothes the soul --
Life after Woolwich --
New possibilities on the horizon? --
ch. 9. Exploring familiar ground on unfamiliar territory --
First impressions --
Getting started --
Thriving in the graduate classroom --
Launching the American Journal of Mathematics --
Sustaining the American Journal of Mathematics. ch. 10. Tackling new challenges in a home away from home --
Sylvester and his early students --
From invariant theory to the theory of numbers --
From number theory to "universal algebra" --
A troubled transition to the theory of partitions --
Henry Smith is dead --
ch. 11. A bittersweet victory --
An Oxford in transition --
Between two worlds --
A rocky year --
Hopkins in Oxfordshire? --
ch. 12. The final transition --
Increasing signs of age --
An international competition --
A steady decline --
The final years --
Epilogue : James Joseph Sylvester : the man and his legacies --
Notes --
References --
Index.

摘要：

Offers a biographical study of James Joseph Sylvester and his work. A Cambridge student at first denied a degree because of his faith, Sylvester came to America to teach mathematics, ultimately becoming Daniel Coit Gilman's faculty recruits at Johns Hopkins in 1876 and winning the coveted Savilian Professorship of Geometry at Oxford in 1883.再讀一些...

評論

社評

出版商概要

A masterful biography. American Scientist 2006 An important and impressively documented contribution to the history of nineteenth-century mathematics. -- Craig G. Fraser Mathematical Reviews 2006 A thoroughly enjoyable read. -- J. W. Anderson The London Mathematical Society Newsletter 2006 This is an exceptional example of scholarly research. -- Gail Kaplan Convergence 2007 Parshall has already established herself as a leading expert on Sylvester and his milieu, carefully reconstructing the trajectory of Sylvester's professional life on the basis of copious documentary evidence, describing Sylvester's more important mathematical results in his career context, and writing for broad audiences with no detailed mathematical exposition or technical analysis of Sylvester's mathematics... Highly recommended. Choice 2007 A well-written and thorough account of its subject... a wealth of useful and well-researched information that is difficult to find elsewhere. -- Robin Wilson Historia Mathematica 2006 This well-written, thoroughly researched biography will become the definitive study of Sylvester. -- Jeremy Gray British Journal for the History of Science 2008再讀一些...